Peer-to-peer networking has gained wide popularity as a means for sharing files. Peer-to-peer networking is especially popular in those instances when the shared files are media content files, for example audio content and video content files. Peer-to-peer networking is similar to a more traditional data sharing paradigm called the “client-server” model. In the client-server model, computers share information in a structured manner where one computer is a server and another computer is a client. Although the manner in which a data transfer takes place is different, peer-to-peer networking and client-sever transactions typically both rely on a ubiquitous computer data network, for example a local area network or a wide area network (e.g. the Internet). One distinguishing characteristic of the peer-to-peer model vis-à-vis the client-server model is that a computer operating in a peer-to-peer configuration is capable of acting both as a client and as a server, depending upon a particular data transaction. For example, when a computer in a peer-to-peer network needs data, that computer can operate as a client. The same computer can also provide data as a server when called upon to do so by another computer communicatively associated with the first computer in a peer-to-peer network.
Many mobile device are now equipped with one or more wireless data interfaces. A mobile device that includes a wireless interface can participate in an ad-hoc data network, which is typically a short lived communications channel that is established between devices that include a wireless interface. Such wireless ad-hoc networks often use peer-to-peer connections to facilitate sharing of media content files.
Because wireless ad-hoc networks are limited in time and space, it becomes difficult to enable reliable sharing of a file with a neighbor node. Furthermore, a user of a mobile wireless device may not want to share any files with a neighbor node because that user may want to reserve for other purposes the limited data bandwidth provided by a wireless connection. As a result, ad-hoc file sharing is only supported by users that actually want to share a file. To the detriment of copyright owners, most users of mobile wireless devices are only interested in sharing pirated media content files. As a consequence, most users are unwilling to participate in the distribution of a legitimate media content file using a wireless ad-hoc network.